Report on the Exhibition of Live Stock at Birmingham. 551 
secured than these, otherwise our largest towns and densest 
masses of population would always be selected in fixing the 
places of meeting. And it is because Birmingham so fullj 
met other wants, in being the acknowledged centre of a very 
wide-spread and highly important agricultural district, that 
results follow of truly national scope as affecting the arts of 
husbandry and stock-breeding. Thus the Royal Agricultural 
Society has discharged its educational functions most effectually, 
and has earned the general gratitude in promoting so thoroughly 
one of the greatest interests of the country and of the age. 
Statistics show that the large Birmingham attendances have 
been once, and once only, exceeded ; as at Manchester they 
reached 200,733,* while the Leeds Meeting had 145,738 visitors, 
and the ZSewcastle 144,683 ; but at neither of these large towns 
was there anvthin? like such larg^e entries of stock as at Birming- 
ham. The Leeds entries were 299 cattle, 254 horses, 359 sheep, 
and 115 pigs ; making a total of 1027. At Newcastle there 
were 381 cattle : but other stock were less numerous, the total 
reaching 1099. Manchester boasted of 338 cattle, 384 horses, 
461 sheep, and 132 pigs: making a total of 1315; but at 
Birmingham the numbers reached to 465 cattle, 424 horses, 
407 sheep, and 203 pigs ; the total being 1499. 
Xot only can this be fairly claimed, but also that in Aston 
Park there was a fuller and grander representation of the leading 
breeds of stock, taken generally, than has been experienced since 
the Battersea Show of 1862, which was distinctly international 
in character, and consequently exceptional. At Bedford, in 1874, 
there were more sheep and pigs, the former numbering 486, and 
the latter 226 ; but the horses were only 412, and the cattle 403 ; 
consequently although the larger total of 1527 is described, the 
Bedford entries scarcely stand so hign in importance. It is, 
indeed, not difficult to prove, then, by a comparison of numbers, 
that a fuller and more uniform display of stock has only taken 
place at Battersea Park in the great year of the International 
Exhibition, when all parties strained their utmost to swell the 
exhibition to an unprecedented extent. But of the 1988 entries 
contained in the Catalogue on that occasion, 183 were foreign 
animals, while 238 were sent over the border from Scotland ; 
thereby reducing the purely English exhibits to 1595. At 
VVorcester, the following year, the numbers shrank within normal 
limits to 1219, and even the Show held at that place was accounted 
a grand one. 
A better site than that chosen for the late Show could not 
* It shotild be mentioned, however, that this number includes 11,631 registered 
entries of 2864 season-ticket holders ; wliereas at Birmingham, the entries of the 
44.3 season-ticket holders were not reeistered. — Ed. 
2 o 2 
